Author: Ducky

2021-09-29 General

Testing/Diagnostics In this study, they put a wristwatch-like thing on the wrists of people who willingly allowed themselves to be infected with either rhinovirus, flu, or placebo. The wristwatch thingie was able to predict illness about a day before symptoms showed up. This could be really useful for diagnosing other respiratory infections (like ahem COVID-19).… Continue reading 2021-09-29 General

2021-09-28 General

Treatments It’s been observed often that obesity raises the risk of COVID-19. This preprint looked into it more closely, and found that the anti-obesity drug orlistat blocks COVID-19 in mice. Mitigation Measures This report from England looked how behaviour correlated with risk of getting COVID-19. People who reported that never wore masks were slightly over… Continue reading 2021-09-28 General

2021-09-28 BC

Mitigation Methods This article says that TransLink is going to put copper — which is an anti-microbial — on a lot of high-touch surfaces as part of a pilot program. This article says that the province has announced restrictions for the eastern Fraser Valley in response to surging cases there. The province also said that… Continue reading 2021-09-28 BC

2021-09-25/26/27 BC

Mitigation Measures Apparently there has been a cap, instituted because COVID-19, on the fees that delivery services are allowed to charge restaurants: 15% on deliveries and 5% on related administration (like web sites, credit card processing, etc.) The province has now extended that cap until 31 Dec. The dude who got busted for setting up… Continue reading 2021-09-25/26/27 BC

2021-09-24 General

Mitigation Measures This US CDC report says that counties with school mask mandates had lower absolute pediatric case rates (16.32 per 100K/day vs. 34.85 per 100K/day) and a lower increase in cases after school started. This (different) US CDC report says that counties without a mask mandate in schools had a 3.5x higher chance of… Continue reading 2021-09-24 General

2021-09-24 BC

Hospitalizations There was been disgruntled chatter in the previous few days about how the province is not reporting people in hospital in the COVID-19 briefings if the person is no longer COVID-19 positive. Something I realized is that it would be tricky to give the number. What if someone goes to the hospital for a… Continue reading 2021-09-24 BC

2021-09-23 BC

Testing This article says that yesterday was a record-breaking testing day, especially in Abbotsford. 45% of today’s cases were in Fraser. Reporting For some reason, the fact that the province only counts people who are currently contagious with COVID-19 in their hospitalization numbers is getting attention right now. The policy means that we don’t know… Continue reading 2021-09-23 BC

2021-09-23 General

Vaccines This long and highly technical preprint also says that the MMR vaccine gives some protection against and that the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine does. The authors did two things: They took T cells from blood which had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (either from infection or vaccination) and added either MMR or Tdap vaccines, and… Continue reading 2021-09-23 General